Rebirth
by CrazyNutSquirrel
Summary: This is my contest entry for S.T. Hedgehog's fanfiction contest. Check it out. Rated T for safety. Shadow and Scourge are assassins, but when Rouge and Sonic start getting involved, what will happen? Shadow x Rouge.
1. Prologue

Rebirth

"Oooooooh... that hurt." Scourge the Hedgehog, green "villain" of Psuedo Mobius, rubbed his spikes as he finally slowed down. Why Fiona had stabbed him was obvious, he'd just ditched her so... that wouldn't please her. But Scourge was independent, he didn't like to be tied down. By females at least.

The ground suddenly shook as if an earthquake was starting, but it only lasted ten seconds if that was the cause. A cloud of dust rose to Scourge's right. "Hmmm.... this should be interesting." He was there in one second, he squinted, trying to see whatever had landed. A meteor? A UFO? The dust drifted away and Scourge saw a bedraggled looking heap of fur.

"What in the world...?" He climbed down the sides of the hole and slid to a stop beside the heap. He poked it and it groaned. Scourge realized it was a person. "I wonder who it is...?" He picked up the strange hedgehog and propped him up against the side of the hole. He had red streaks on his arms, legs, and spikes, and two beside his eyes.

The eyelids flickered upwards for a brief second. "Hey, you okay?" Asked Scourge. Suddenly the hedgehog's eyelids snapped up and Scourge saw he had red eyes, he did a neat backflip and landed up outside the hole, he fell to his knees though, wincing. Scourge easily used the chaos energy that he'd stolen from the Master Emerald to teleport up.

"Who are you?" The stranger's voice was deep, Scourge immediately realized that it would sound veeery good to girls. This brought his mind to certain avenues he'd have been lost on if he hadn't had to answer. "I'm Scourge the Hedgehog, you?" "Shadow the Hedgehog." "Where do you come from?"

"Why do you need to know?" Asked Shadow, shooting a look at him. "Curious." Said Scourge, shrugging. "Where am I then?" "Psuedo Mobius." "So you're Sonic's counterpart I guess." "Sonic? You know him?"

"Yes, damn the faker." Growled Shadow rising painfully. Scourge supported him and grinned, "Well come with me. Wanna be partners?" "Partners?" "Yeah, we could form our own team." "That's not what I meant." Said Shadow, but he remained silent the rest of the way. Scourge went on and on and on about what they could do together.

**This is the prologue for my contest entry...... I hope you enjoyed it. ^^**


	2. Chapter 1

Rebirth

Chapter one

Team mates

_"Can't read my, can't read my, no he can't read my poker face, she's got me like..." _The music was abruptly cut off as the stereo was blown to pieces. Scourge sat up indignantly, "Hey! That's good music!"

"With rather suggestive lyrics that are bothering me." Growled Shadow, ending the discussion. "What is it with you and suggestive lyrics?" Pouted Scourge. "The fact that you seem to like to discuss the meaning or what they make you think of if you listen to them too long."

"Can I listen to Nickleback then?" "Something in your mouth by them? What did I just say about suggestive lyrics?" Asked Shadow, pretending to be surprised. Scourge blew out a sigh of frustration. "Okay then..... can I listen to OTHER songs? Ones that aren't suggestive?"

"Sure..." "Then I'm listening to Just Dance by Lady GaGa." Shadow sighed and walked out of the room. Scourge grinned, sneakily pulled out an iPod and turned on Poker face by Lady GaGa instead.

***

Shadow dragged Scourge from his music to the table in the kitchen. Or rather.... dining hall. "What?" Complained Scourge. "Scourge, we have been team mates for a week and you keep on avoiding all mention of what we can do as team mates." "Fine fine fine.... you have me cornered. I really have no idea what we can do."

Shadow sighed, "Look at this then, it might interest you and I'm a pretty fair shot." Scourge had a grin on his face before he finished reading it. "Assassins? This sounds good. Want to try?" "Would I have showed you if it didn't interest me?"

"Nope. So let's go!" Shadow sighed, Scourge was sometimes a little too much like Sonic, but then again, Scourge was the blue annoyance's double.

***

The crime lord Dracsa looked at them, he was a black fox with black eyes, he was a master hypnotist, and could slip into any place unnoticed. But he preferred to keep his life safe, so he ruled a crime ring full of thieves, there were some assassins, but none of them were really good.

So he was rather skeptical when Shadow and Scourge showed up at his "doorstep". His base was hidden underneath the city, there was an entrance to it in the sewers. So he decided to insist on them taking some tests set up by his not-so-good assassins.

They set up some robots with small robots within them so that they can move around like living things. Shadow rolled his eyes and stared with disdain at the dart gun in his hand, he shot the very small necks easily, hitting the very centre of the targets painted on them. Dracsa was very impressed. Then he had Scourge tested, Scourge only got slightly less than Shadow, his hits were only slightly off target.

They were tested in all types of assassination, and they passed in flying colours. Shadow turned out to be a pretty good liar too, and a very good actor. Being a liar was easy for Scourge, but in acting he was terrible. So all in all, Dracsa was very pleased. He hired them immediately. They were given a bat as a team mate.

His name was Rodrigo, his fur was golden brown, his hair was black and wavy... when you looked at him, he was the very image of the handsomest of boys, to ladies. Shadow fit into that description too, at least, by the thoughts of girls. Rodrigo arrived after them with a bunch of others, and his results were the best other than Shadow and Scourge's. And he was an excellent actor, he'd taken acting lessons when he was younger so he was of course ideal.

"You will be Team Poison." Shadow thought, 'How classic'. Then he inwardly chuckled, he could think of dozens of better names than Team Poison. But he had to stick with it nonetheless. He was fast, but so was Scourge, Scourge was their speed member, Shadow was also a speed member, but he was more of a power member for them, Rodrigo of course provided flight.

"Your first mission." Said Dracsa handing them a slip of paper. There was a huge party that the President was attending, they were supposed to poison the President's chief advisor, clearing the way for one of Dracsa's operatives to get the position and have an ear out for anythings that the crime world couldn't find out.

Shadow nodded. He was to go as Beau Ricktasy (he didn't like the name but he had to go with it seeing as the ID's were already made), Scourge was Simon Ricktasy (they were to go as brothers), and Rodrigo was Clarence Ondreli. "Good luck." Said Dracsa, meanwhile his assassins were quietly hissing bad luck at the three who they knew were much better at their job.

***

The guard was a raven who was very excitable. "Hello, IDs please." They showed them." "Beau, Clarence, and Simon eh? Nice names. Go on in, I hope you like the party!" Simon, a.k.a Scourge, grinned and winked, "I'll see if I can bring you a bottle of wine."

The raven laughed, "Thanks, but I don't drink wine." Scourge shrugged, "Okay then." Team Poison was dressed up in suits, of course, Shadow had not liked this (neither had Scourge), but it was necessary. Shadow had made his highlights a much darker red, in case anyone recognized him.

Sure enough, there were some people there he knew personally. Amy Rose, Sonic the Hedgehog, Rouge the Bat, E-123 Omega, Emerl... Sally Acorn was not present, Knuckles was in her place though, looking very uncomfortable.

Shadow silently positioned himself with his back against one of the pillars, Scourge was going to come along soon to take his place so he could meander along to the upper level were he would be able to take the shot, Rodrigo had disappeared already, having gone to shut down all the security so they could make a clean getaway.

Scourge came along, grinning, they had had to disguise him so that no one would recognize him, his fur was dark green now, and the scars on his chest were covered by the suit. And the fact that he wore a suit also disguised him. Because everyone knew Scourge hated suits, so it seems reasonable that he wouldn't wear one if he could help it.

Shadow slipped away to the stairs and went up, pretending to be going to examine the paintings on display. One person noticed him. She quietly slipped away from the group she was in.

Shadow cast a critical eye over the painting in front of him, it was supposed to be the original of some painting, he didn't really care who had made it, but he knew that it was a fake. He shook his head, "Idiots." He muttered.

"Who are idiots?" Shadow whipped around, Rouge stood there, with an eyebrow raised. "This painting is a fake. Whoever set this up either thought it was the original or switched the paintings." Rouge blinked, surprised.

"Say... do I know you?" Before Shadow could reply Omega came towards them, Shadow felt strange, here was Team Dark, literally together again, yet not together. "Rouge, you are requested downstairs." Rouge sighed, "I sometimes wish I wasn't a GUN agent. Maybe I'll see you later." She said, winking at Shadow, who was quite impervious to her charm.

As soon as she was gone and the upper level was deserted Shadow quickly moved into position, the area he chose was hidden from the light, so he was safe enough. The suit came off, it would only hinder him, he carefully took the dart gun from his quills and aimed, there was the President's chief advisor.

Rodrigo appeared beside Shadow, "Who was the bat?" "Rouge." "She could have ruined our plans." "Yeah..." Said Shadow, though his mind was furiously thinking, Rouge was very smart, she would realize that the hedgehog she had seen upstairs was either the actual assassin, or a suspect. Rodrigo leaned forward as the President stood aside to let his advisor talk, because his advisor dealt with giving awards.

Shadow's finger pulled back slightly, the trigger was almost in place to shoot the dart. Rouge came forward and took her award to the applause of everyone present. Then she looked up, Shadow's whole disguise had dropped, her jaw dropped and she stared, others were about to turn to look when Shadow pulled the trigger. The chief advisor gasped, clutching at his throat, driving the dart deeper. Then he fell over, his eyes blank.

There was immediate chaos. Rouge was rushing towards the stairs though, "Shadow!" She yelled, but no one except Shadow, Rodrigo, and Sonic heard her. Sonic turned against the tide, "Shadow?" His eyes narrowed and he looked at the upper floor, he saw a red streak, Shadow. He ran towards the stairs, "Rouge! Was Shadow here?" "Yes! I saw him when the chief advisor handed me my award." Sonic picked her up and they dashed to the spot. Only the dart gun lay there. "If it was Shadow he was wearing gloves, we won't kn...." "But whoever touched it last, the person who got Shadow to do this, without gloves, could be found."

"That's right! Let's go take it to the police." Rouge carefully picked it up and Sonic whizzed downstairs and out the door. Simon, Beau, and Clarence exited by an upstairs window a careless secretary had left open.

***

Dracsa was delighted, "And you left no evidence I presume?" Shadow shook his head, he had stopped them on the way back so he could chaos control to a volcano and drop the "gun" in. What he dropped in was the fake painting. The gun he left as a clue for Rouge. He didn't know why he wanted to help her find him, but he just did.

Scourge later stopped him on his way to the stairs. "Okay Shads, what's up?" "Don't call me Shads." Growled Shadow. "Okay then SHADOW, what is going on? Besides the usual I mean." Shadow just pushed past him, "It will come out sooner or later." Said Scourge before going into the living room to watch TV.

**O.O That was......... unexpected. I hope you enjoyed it. ^^**


	3. Chapter 2

Rebirth

Chapter 2

A clue

Rouge waited impatiently as the machines checked for fingerprints. It seemed like it had taken FOREVER. Sonic was just as impatient, his foot was tapping so much that it was a blur and the tapping noise was more like a drone.

Rouge sighed, "Sonic could you stop that?" "Stop what?" "Tapping your foot." "Oh yeah.... sure." The drone stopped. "We're done, there is only one match in the whole world." Rouge raised an eyebrow, "Whole world?" "Well they might have fleed to another country." Said the scientist. "Whatever. Who is it?"

"Rodrigo." Said a calm voice, there, in the doorway stood Shadow with a leather jacket on, the sleeves went to his elbows only, the design looked a little strange on Shadow, but fashion was never something that had really interested Shadow. It had been more of a, what scares the enemy? thought for clothing that had made him wear it, he looked like what he was, someone who could easily kill without it being on their conscience.

Rouge blinked, "Sh..." "Shads! What in the world were you thinking?!" Asked Sonic, immediately confronting Shadow, his finger poked Shadow in the chest as he spoke, Shadow just leaned against the doorway, taking it, looking very bored as Sonic continued in his lecture. "... could have been killed...!" Rouge interrupted, "Shadow, why did you do it?"

Shadow smirked, "Finally someone asks me something." He tossed the paper to Rouge and attached to it was him, Scourge, and Rodrigo. "Team Poison." Read Rouge. "But Shadow, aren't you with me and Omega? Aren't you part of Team Dark?" Shadow turned his head, "Rouge, I owe Scourge."

Sonic stared at him, jaw open, flabbergasted. "But Shadow! Scourge was probably doing that to get you to help him!" "That is not the point Sonic. He helped me, I am helping him now." "But... why?" Shadow sighed. "Sonic, can you be any more idiotic than you were years ago? Apparently you can. You don't seem to understand what owing means. Look it up in the dictionary Faker."

Then he turned to Rouge, as she asked, "Why could we find evidence if you did it?" "Simple Rouge, Rodrigo is planning to betray Scourge and I, I decided that we should do it first." "But don't you owe him as well?" Shadow shook his head, "No, I don't. Dracsa teamed him up with us." "But how can we keep an eye on this...?" Wondered Rogue out loud.

Shadow smirked, "I have an idea." After explaining it he waited for the reaction. Rouge grinned, "This will be fun Shadow." Sonic was laughing himself silly, "Knuckles is going to go mad!"

***

Rodrigo heard his doorbell ring two days later. Scratching his chest he went downstairs and opened the door. "Yeah?" Rouge smiled sweetly at him, "Would you come with me?" "Where to?" He asked, interested. If not by her than at least by her looks, she generally had that effect on all boys.

"To my car, I'd like to take you somewhere special handsome." He was now completely under her control, "Sure... I'll come." The driver was a red echidna, the cap was pulled low so you couldn't see his eyes, Rouge sat in the back with Rodrigo, "What's your name? I don't have it yet." She said, as if full of sorrow, Rodrigo was now entranced. "Rodrigo, who are you?" "Rouge." She kissed him on the cheek and a vein throbbed on the driver's neck.

"I'd like to you to meet some friends of mine." He agreed of course. When they parked the echidna opened the doors and escorted them to the door. Rodrigo didn't even notice the echidna's presence.

GUN soldiers surrounded Rodrigo and knocked him out. "Good job Rouge." Said the officer who was there. Rouge grinned, "Thank you Officer." Knuckles removed the cap and glared at the crow, "I want to kill him." "Why Knuckie? Because I kissed him?" "NO!!!" Yelled Knuckles, which showed everyone that he actually meant yes.

"Whatever you say Knuxie." They went inside and Shadow was leaning casually against one of the pillars. "So, is Knuckles ready for this?" "Yes emo boy, I won't be outdone by a hedgehog." Growled Knuckles. Shadow rolled his eyes and said, "Knuckles, I am not emo. If there is an emo in this room it is you, though you would be an emo who needs anger management lessons badly. "

Sonic laughed himself silly over this as Knuckles had to dye the white birth mark on his chest red to match his fur, then complete his disguise with a rather rowdy outfit. Rouge giggled, "Knuckles, if this situation wasn't so urgent I would say you were captain of the local punk group." She just laughed after that.

Dracsa was enraged when he found out (from Shadow) that Rodrigo had allowed himself to be caught. "The blab will tell everything! And now who am I going to team with you and Scourge?!" "Boss, there is someone." Shadow stepped to the side to show Knuckles. Dracsa looked him up and down, his eyes lingered on Knuckles' gloved hands.

"I doubt he can pull a trigger." "But he's good in other ways Boss." Said Shadow quietly. He then explained that Knuckles COULD hold a dart pipe with poisoned darts, and his fists could smash through anything. Dracsa was quiet for a moment, "Alright. You're hired. Join Shadow and Scourge as a member for Team Poison." Knuckles inclined his head silently. Shadow, who knew him, could see that he was furious at being addressed that way.

***

Knuckles came into the living room (as Shadow had done not too long ago), to find Scourge swearing like a sailor. (No offense intended to any sailors). He immediately knocked Scourge out. "SHADOW?!" He yelled, Shadow appeared. "What?" He sounded rather cross.

Knuckles told him about what Scourge had been doing, previously. Shadow sighed. "He's been drinking again." Shadow dragged Scourge's unconscious form to the door before turning around, "I'll be back soon." He disappeared in a flash of chaos energy.

At that precise moment, the phone rang. "Hello?" Knuckles said in the toneless voice he had had to adopt for safety. "Hello Knuckles." Hissed Dracsa on the other end. "I have another mission for Team Poison." "Okay." "You are to get rid of two twins who defied me yesterday, they own an apartment in front of the warehouses." Dracsa gave Knuckles the address and his eyes widened.

As soon as he'd hung up the first thing Knuckles could say to himself was, "Oh crap."

**O.O I hope you enjoyed this chapter, sorry I had to end it in a cliffie.**


	4. Chapter 3

Rebirth

Chapter 3

What to do?

When Shadow and Scourge got back Knuckles was frantic, he had had no idea where they had gone and he'd forgotten Shadow had a cell phone now. "Knuckles what is wrong?!" Roared Shadow when he came in, noticing the echidna was close to breaking down.

"I can not do this! I can not do this ludicrous mission!" He mumbled as he frantically tried to forget it. Scourge sighed and took the paper from Knuckles. He read it. "Ooooh crap." He said. Shadow raised an eyeridge and took it. Then his eyes widened too. The mission was to kill Mephiles. "He's on the loose again?! I thought he was dead!?" Growled Shadow to hide his horror. Scourge shrugged, "I guess he isn't. And it's just our luck that we have to go kill him now." Knuckles was frightened out of his wits by this, why? Because Mephiles had almost destroyed the Master Emerald, permanently, last time, and he almost took Knuckles' life with it. So his fear was understandable.

Shadow glared at Knuckles. "Knuckles." "What?!" "We can kill Mephiles." "HOW?!" Knuckles practically screamed. Shadow sighed, "Scourge, find some way to shut him up so we can explain... the neighbors will get curious." So Scourge promptly tied Knuckles up and put a gag in his mouth.

"Good. Knuckles, we CAN kill Mephiles. I know that he's invincible to almost everything but he isn't invincible to poision. All Scourge and I have to do is distract him and you can get a clear shot." Knuckles nodded slowly.

"Good. Let's go."

***

Mephiles looked up and his eyes narrowed as he saw his visitors. They were in the middle of a mountain, the ceiling stretched high above their heads, and there was a raised section of flooring in the middle so that Mephiles was above those who came to see him. Scourge stared at him with slight alarm while Shadow looked simply bored.

"Hello Mephiles." Mephiles made no reply. Shadow sighed in exasperation and said, "Mephiles, you know that you could never intimidate me, so why not just give it up?" Mephiles grinned now, "Still the same old Shadow eh?" "More or less." "I somehow think less." Shadow rolled his eyes.

"Mephiles. We came to make you a deal."

Knuckles heard all this as he quietly scaled down the inside of the mountain, he'd have to time this right... being an assassin didn't appeal to Knuckles... but someone had to do the dirty jobs he supposed... like killing Mephiles. He was fine with THAT.

He raised the pipe slightly and waited for the signal.

".... and so we could actually get you information." Mephiles looked thoughtful. "But why now? Why join my side now?" He asked. Shadow shrugged, "If you can't be killed what is the point of fighting you?" He asked. "Yes... what is the point." But then he grinned, "Last time you almost DID kill me." "Oh?" "Yes, almost. That's the key word here. I was on the border. But NOTHING..." he boasted, "... NOTHING can send me farther than that."

"Not even poison?" Asked Scourge. Mephiles' grin became wider. "No, not even poison."

The signal. Knuckles blew. And three things happened in quick succession.

Mephiles felt the dart pierce his neck and let out a cry of rage as he fell to the floor, pain already blossoming across his chest. Shadow dodged to the side as thousands of clones came rushing back to melt into the now dead Mephiles' body. Scourge darted forward and grabbed a few nice looking jewels.

When that was done Shadow signaled to Knuckles to come down. The echidna looked pretty shaky. "What's wrong echidna? Never killed anything that isn't mechanical before?" Asked Scourge. Shadow gave him a glare to shut him up. "Knuckles, are you okay?" "Who do you think you're talking to?!" Knuckles yelled in the way that he usually would when he was challenging people who had stolen the Master Emerald.

Shadow smirked, "Oh you're recovered then? Good. Let's go." They strolled out of the mountain to were Scourge's Rat Rod was parked and they drove off.

***

A day after this, Shadow told Rouge about it. She blew out a sigh of relief, "Thank goodness. I never knew Dracsa would help us like that." "He didn't." "What do you mean?" "He did it so that his leadership wouldn't be challenged by a new person in the crime ring." Rouge shook her head. "They're all the same then aren't they?"

"If you think of it a certain way yes." Rouge looked at Shadow strangely. "What do you mean?" "Dracsa is a lot fairer to his "employees" than other crime lords are Rouge." "Are you talking about Eggman?" "Yes." Rouge started laughing, "I hardly think he'd be fair to anyone... how could he with such a wobbly stomach?" Shadow shook his head. "Rouge, you shouldn't mock him. For all you know we might be ordered to assassinate him next."

That shut Rouge up.

***

As it was, Rouge needn't have stopped. Dracsa never ordered them to kill Eggman, just certain associates of his. It turned out that Eggman had connections in very powerful places, Shadow did not feel regret at wiping them out.

Scourge was now perfectly contented... Shadow would go out and get things they needed while he could just stay at home and relax... if you called watching violent movies and listening to rather questionable music relaxing like he did.

Knuckles of course could not bear these times, and went with Shadow. But sometimes he'd stay and attempt to call Tikal without blowing a fuse in the middle of the conversation because of Scourge loudly singing along with the lyrics of his songs.

Shadow came back one of those days looking unusually grave. "Guys, we need to find a way to stop Dracsa, and fast." "Why?" "He's starting to set his sights on certain people. There is an assassin that he's afraid of, we're supposed to kill him. And he hired that assassin last week. We are going to be killing our colleagues." Scourge stared, flabbergasted.

How could this have happened while he was listening to Britney Spears?! He wondered. Knuckles wondered how this could have affected the Master Emerald. But what Shadow was wondering was whether or not Dracsa would start ordering them to kill GUN agents. Or friends of GUN.

Dracsa paced back and forth. "Oh yes..." he muttered feverishly. "Chop their heads off, poison their wine, slit their throats, cut off their hands..." His guards twitched a lot these days, Dracsa was now so paranoid he wouldn't hesitate to kill anyone, or chop off limbs. Two weeks ago, Shadow, Scourge, and Knuckles had destroyed Mephiles.

He stopped pacing and a mad light shone in his eyes. "Yes... that's exactly what I'll do!" He quickly went to his desk and wrote a quick note. "You." He said to the smaller of the guards, who jumped. "Take this to Shadow and Scourge. Do not read it. If you get caught swallow it."

The guard nodded, scared of Dracsa as always. He took the note and ran as if for his life.

***

Shadow took the note from the tired guard and sent him back as he opened it. He blinked, "Well this was... unexpected." Scourge read over his shoulder. "Kill that Commander guy? Fine. But what's this at the bottom?"

As Shadow read the footnote his blood went cold.

_Rouge the Bat and Sonic the Hedgehog shall be guarding him, they got wind of this somehow. Maybe they read minds, but they will be there. Bring them back to me if possible, they will make good agents after they are put through enough pain. If not possible, kill them._

Shadow looked up as he heard Scourge's voice coming as if from far away. "... we have two days to prepare...." "You guys prepare in whatever way you need to. I'll be somewhere else." "But Shad...." A flash of light was all that replied, telling him Shadow had gone. He sighed, "What's up with him?"

Knuckles shrugged. "We'll have to figure out how to save Sonic and Rouge though." "Are you kidding? We can't save them! We'll get killed if we do. And Dracsa is way scarier than Mephiles Knuckles." Knuckles looked alarmed as he left the room.

***

Shadow took in a deep breath then exhaled. He was on an island he had discovered not too long ago, it wasn't inhabited, and no map had the location on it. He dove into the sea, the water parted smoothly and he was swimming strong strokes around the island. He circled it twenty times, then just sat on the sand watching the sun sink.

What was he going to do? He and Rouge had been team mates, but there was something else. Something he didn't quite understand. He sighed and stood. He would have to prepare, but if he was with Scourge and Knuckles it would be harder to do that, they were a constant reminder of... her. He didn't even give Sonic a thought, killing the faker didn't really bother him, after all, Sonic was very annoying, and he wouldn't be associated with it, he would be disguised and unrecognizable.

His fist smashed through a palm tree. He stared at his hand, completely devoid of splinters, filled with blood that would never stop flowing because his heart would never stop beating. He sighed again. Things were going to be tough. Another palm tree fell down.

***

The green hedgehog assassin looked at his wrist watch, "Shadow's late." He got the fright of his life when a voice behind him said, "I wasn't late, you were. By twenty minutes." "Shadow?!" Knuckles chuckled, Scourge had been driving him nuts the past two days. "Who else?" He asked.

"That sounded like Sonic." Said Knuckles. They fell quiet, "Shall we go?" Asked Scourge to break the uncomfortable silence. "Yes." They climbed into Scourge's rat rod and he "set a course" as he called it, for the GUN base the Commander was always at unless there was an attack.

Shadow did not like it when he saw that the whole area was deserted, "It's almost as if he wanted us to come here." Muttered Shadow, Scourge rolled his eyes. "Oh whatever Shadow! He probably has no idea what's gonna hit 'im." He grinned. Shadow raised an eyebrow.

"I somehow do not take him for a fool." Knuckles looked equally uneasy, but Scourge had not a care. Shadow stepped towards the entrance and stopped, his jaw taut, as a memory flashed through his mind.

_Flashback:_

_Rouge was saying something to Shadow, they were both on board the Egg Fleet, Omega was blowing up the android room. He couldn't hear what Rouge said, he saw his own mouth move, but couldn't hear what he said either. Omega appeared, he heard what the robot said. "Shadow, you must remember that she is immortal and you are not." Then the image faded._

_End Flashback._

They went through the building, finding each corridor deserted. They came to the corridor that led to the Commander's office. Rouge and Sonic were there, as Dracsa had said.

Rouge blinked, "Sh... Shadow?!" He kept his face as emotionless as he could. Scourge did not remain silent like Knuckles and Shadow. Oh no... he started yapping. "Hey Sonic! Hey Rouge! Newest mission from the old boss man is to put Commando in there to sleep. You too if required, if not then we're to bring you back to be agents."

Shadow's eye twitched as he saw Rouge's mouth open in disbelief. "Scourge, we didn't come here to talk. Let's just get this over with." Shadow hardly noticed what the others were doing, he attacked Rouge. In her surprise she flung out her foot in a kick and connected with his ribs. He crashed into the wall. But he was out almost instantly, he tossed a chaos spear at her. What interested Rouge most, when she wasn't having to dodge, was that he never made eye contact with her.

That was something strange for Shadow. He always made eye contact with his opponents, enemy or not. "Shadow!" She called as she dodged, his head turned, his eyes didn't look up though. "Shadow what is wrong with yo.. ugh!" She fell as a chaos spear hit her, combined with a punch that Knuckles' had aimed at Sonic and a chaos spear Scourge had aimed at the aforementioned blue hedgehog. Rouge landed heavily.

She looked up, "Sh... Shadow please." Chaos energy glowed in his hand, "Shadow please!!!!!!" Her scream tore through the sound barrier on the memory and let him hear the words. _"Shadow, I will always stand by you." "Why? Because I can help you get jewels?" "No, because you are my friend...." _The chaos energy hit the floor an inch from Rouge's head.

She fainted, either from exhaustion or fear he couldn't tell. He didn't want to tell. He stepped away from her, "Shadow help us here!" Yelled Scourge. But Shadow turned away and disappeared. That moment of distraction on Scourge's part made them fall, Sonic stood grinning tiredly as he tied Knuckles and Scourge up, "Good. Rouge will probably say what we should do with them when they wake up."

Shadow appeared in Dracsa's office. "Where are the other two? Don't tell me I have to give you new team mates again." Growled Dracsa, his growl turned into a strangled sob of fear, the guard rushed forward but was knocked back into the wall by a chaos spear. Shadow's red eyes seemed to glow in the dim light of Dracsa's office.

"You made a mistake Dracsa. A serious mistake." He whispered, a crack sounded, and Dracsa's body fell to the floor in a limp heap. Shadow looked at his former employer, venom filling his eyes, then he disappeared in another flash of light.

When Rouge saw Shadow appear in the office the Commander owned she started yelling. She was furious that he'd tried to kill her. "I thought you were my friend!... I TRUSTED YOU...!" Shadow started yelling at her, "It's not easy being me Rouge! Did you think it was?! Being able to live forever and ever and ever..... afraid to love, afraid to like someone because you know they are going to die and leave you alone!" "Oh yeah?!" Rouge practically screamed, she was still furious, "And who are you afraid to love Mr. Ultimate life form who can kill anyone he wants?!"

Shadow, who had turned around after he stopped yelling, whirled and grabbed her shoulders, shaking her. "You!" He roared in her face. Rouge's face went white, at least, whiter than before if possible. Shadow let go of her and stalked out of the room. Scourge put down his drink and was going to follow Shadow when Knuckles stopped him.

"The need time to themselves." He said as Rouge hesitated, then followed Shadow. "I didn't know you were a love doctor Knuckles!" Said Sonic. Knuckles glared at him in a Shadow-ish way. "Shut up hedgehog."

Shadow completely ignored Rouge as she came up behind him. "Shadow?" He didn't reply. "I... I'm sorry." Silence. "Dang it Shadow!" She twisted around in front of him and kissed him. He froze, shocked. Then he pushed her away, "What was that for?!" He asked, not in anger, but amazement. "I love you too Shadow. Can you please stop being angry at me?"

He was silent for a moment, then he nodded. "I guess." "Good." Then, she kissed him again, and this time, he didn't push her away.

Sonic wrinkled his nose. "Eeewwww......... love scenes. Yuck." Knuckles smacked the back of his head, "Shut up or they'll notice!" Scourge thought it would be funny if they (Sonic and Knuckles that is) were noticed. He called out in a pretty good imitation of Knuckles, "Shadow! Rouge! When can we expect the wedding?" The new couple whirled, Sonic and Knuckles screamed and ran for their lives as Shadow and Rouge thundered after them.

_Sixteen years later._

Shadow ducked as Rodolfo tossed a chaos spear. He was panting, "Dad... how.. much... more... of.. this... do... I... have... to... take?" Before Shadow could answer Rouge called out, "Dinner time you two, the pizza arrived. Get in here or you're fur will be sensitive for a year!" They both rushed to the house and sat down, looking innocent.

Rodolfo was fifteen, and Shadow found out that he wasn't immortal anymore. He would live for a very long time still, maybe three hundred years, but Rodolfo was now the "ultimate life form". Shadow was still the same in every other way though. Rouge eyed them, "And what were you two doing." Before Rodolfo could say anything Shadow put a hand over his mouth and said, "Soccer."

Rouge raised an eyebrow. "I saw too much colour for it to be soccer." Rodolfo, who had caught on, said, "We were Mum. Honestly." Rouge sighed, "I guess I'd better bring the pizza out then."

"YES!" They both said. She laughed and lay two pizzas at each end.

That is the end of this story, but the sinister, light blue figure outside their house in a tree, watching them, with an ugly look on his face, suggests a new story.

**I hope you enjoyed this story. ^^ I originally was going to have this divided into two chapters, but I couldn't decide were to break off! That's the problem with things like this. ^^ All characters except Rodolfo, Dracsa, the door keeper, Rodrigo, and Dracsa belong to me. **


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